The new wave musical style of
Talking Heads combined elements of punk
rock, avant-garde, pop, funk, world music and art
rock. Frontman and songwriter David Byrne contributed
whimsical, esoteric lyrics to the band's songs, and emphasized
their showmanship through various multimedia projects and
performances. Critic Stephen
Thomas Erlewine describes Talking Heads as being "one of the
most critically acclaimed bands of the '80s, while managing to earn
several pop hits."

History

1974-1977: First years

David
Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth were alumni of the Rhode Island
School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. There Byrne and Frantz formed a band called
"The Artistics" in 1974. Weymouth was Frantz's girlfriend and often
provided the band with transportation. The Artistics dissolved
within a year, and the three moved to New York, eventually sharing
an apartment. Unable to find a bass player in New York City, Frantz
encouraged Weymouth to learn to play bass by listening to Suzi Quatro albums. They played their
first gig as "Talking Heads" opening for the Ramones at CBGB on June 8,
1975.

In a later interview, Weymouth recalled how the group chose the
name Talking Heads: "A friend had found the name in the
TV Guide, which explained the term
used by TV studios to describe a head-and-shoulder shot of a person
talking as 'all content, no action.' It fit."

Their first album, Talking Heads:
77, which did not contain the earlier single, was released
soon thereafter.

1978-1982: With Brian Eno

It was with their second album, 1978's More Songs About Buildings
and Food that the band began its long-term collaboration
with producer Brian Eno, who had
previously worked with Roxy Music,
David Bowie and Robert Fripp; the title of Eno's 1977 song
"King's Lead Hat" is an anagram of the band's name. Eno's unusual
style meshed well with the group's artistic sensibilities, and they
began to explore an increasingly diverse range of musical
directions. This recording also established the band's
long term recording studio relationship with the famous Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas. Though "Psycho
Killer", from the debut album, had been a minor hit, it was
More Songs... cover of Al Green's
"Take Me to the River" that broke Talking Heads into general public
consciousness.

The experimentation continued with 1979's Fear of Music, which flirted with
the darker stylings of post-punk rock. The
single "Life During
Wartime" produced the catchphrase, "This ain't no party, this
ain't no disco." 1980's Remain
in Light, heavily influenced by the Afro-Beat of Nigerian bandleader
Fela Kuti, to whose music Eno had
introduced the band, explored African polyrhythms, foreshadowing Byrne's later
interest in world music. In order
to perform these more complex arrangements the band toured with an
expanded group, first at the Heatwave festival in August, and later
in their concert film Stop Making
Sense. During this period, Tina
Weymouth and Chris Frantz also
formed a commercially successful splinter group, the hip-hop
influenced Tom Tom Club, and Harrison
released his first solo record. Likewise, Byrne - in collaboration
with Eno - released My Life in the Bush of
Ghosts, which incorporated world music, 'found' sounds,
and included a number of other prominent international and
post-punk musicians. All were released by Sire.

The Remain in Light album's
lead single, "Once in a Lifetime,"
became a Top 20 hit in the UK but initially failed to make an
impression upon its release in the band's own country. But it grew
into a popular standard over the next few years on the strength of
its music video.

After releasing four albums in barely four years, the group went
into hiatus and nearly three years passed before their next
release, although Frantz and Weymouth continued to record with the
Tom Tom Club. In the meantime, Talking Heads released a live album,
The Name of
This Band Is Talking Heads, toured the US and Europe as an
eight-piece group, and parted ways with Eno, who went on to produce
albums with U2.

1983-1991: Post–Brian Eno

1983 saw the release of Speaking in Tongues, a
commercial breakthrough that produced the band's only American Top
10 hit, "Burning Down the
House." Once again, a striking video was inescapable owing to
its heavy rotation on MTV. The following tour
was documented in Jonathan Demme's
Stop Making Sense, which
generated another live album of the same name. The Speaking in
Tongues tour would be their last.

Three more albums followed: 1985's Little Creatures (which
featured the prominent hit singles "And She
Was" and "Road to Nowhere"),
1986's True Stories
(Talking Heads covering all the soundtrack songs of Byrne's
musical comedy film, in which
the band also appeared), and 1988's Naked. The sound of
Little Creatures and True Stories was much more
American pop-rock, while Naked showed heavy African
influence with polyrhythmic styles like those seen on Remain in
Light. During that time the group was falling increasingly
under David Byrne's control, and after Naked the band went
on "hiatus".

It took until 1991 for an official announcement to be made that
Talking Heads had broken up. A brief reunion occurred, however,
later that year for "Sax and Violins," an original single that
appeared on the soundtrack to Wim
Wenders' Until the
End of the World. Only Byrne and Harrison appear in the
song's video, however, lending doubt to Frantz and Weymouth's
participation on the track. During this breakup period, Byrne
continued his solo career, releasing Rei
Momo in 1989 and The
Forest in 1991. This period also saw a revived flourish
from both Tom Tom Club (Boom
Boom Chi Boom Boom and Dark Sneak Love Action) and
Harrison (the Casual Gods
album/band).

Reunion

The band
played together on March 18, 2002, at the ceremony of their
induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, however reuniting for a concert tour is
unlikely.David Byrne states: "We
did have a lot of bad blood go down. That's one reason, and another
is that musically we're just miles apart." Weymouth has been
critical of David Byrne, describing him as "a man incapable of
returning friendship" and that he doesn't "love" her, Frantz, and
Harrison.